Murmansk Oblast

Murmansk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia, located on the Kola Peninsula in the northwest of the country; Murmansk is its capital. The oblast was established on 28 May 1938, and Petsamo, which had been ceded to Finland in 1920 following the Finnish Civil War, was returned to the Soviet Union during the Winter War of 1940 as the "Pechengsky District". Most of the local Sami population chose to resettle in Finland rather than stay in Murmansk Oblast, which was repopulated by people from other parts of the USSR. In 2014, Murmansk Oblast had a population of 771,100 people, with 89% being Russians, 4.8% Ukrainians, 1.7% Belarusians, .8% Tatars, .5% Azeris, .2% Mordvins, .2% Karelians, .2% Komi, .2% Sami, and 2.4% others.